In Focus

Justice for Human Rights

30 seconds of your time to promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and explain the interdependence between human rights, justice and security and development

We do not need more security to tackle crime; we need human rights to be respected. The more people are protected, the more their rights are promoted, the more we can live in a secure and prosperous word, free from organized crime, violent extremism, abuses and exploitation.

Please send us your video message by 16 June 2019 on this concept: we will select the video messages we receive to produce a video. You may record the message (preferably in a landscape format) with your smartphone and sharing it with us by email (unicri.publicinfo@un.org.

We believe your contribution is fundamental to shape a culture that upholds the idea of an inclusive and fair global society, inspires people and help in understanding what can be done to ensure that each individual enjoys human rights, justice, peace and development.

Please find below some concepts you may take to create your video message

Example 1 on the articles of the Declaration: Behind crimes there are oppressed human beings whose rights are blatantly violated.

Right to Work (Art. 23), the Right to Life, Liberty and Security (Art.3), Freedom from Slavery (Art. 4), Freedom of Movement (Art. 13), the Right to Asylum from Persecution (Art. 14), the Right to Nationality (Art. 15).

Countries and regions are experiencing infringements on refugee and migrant human rights. States are not always able to ensure proper safety, protection, and living and working conditions to people in transit. This often results in underdeveloped and vulnerable groups in transit, such as refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons, becoming prey to criminal groups. Some States can not ensure the security or decent living and working conditions for displaced people, and organized crime feeds off this underdevelopment, yet also feeds it. Therefore, most victims of smuggling, human trafficking, abuse and violence are deprived, and in many cases displaced.

Example 2 on the articles of the Declaration: Kidnapping, recruitment and use of child soldiers by violent extremists groups.

The Right to Life, Liberty and Security (Art. 3), Freedom from Slavery (Art. 4), the Right to Rest and Leisure (Art. 24), Freedom from Torture (Art. 5) and the Right to Education (Art. 26)

This grave violation is when children become associated with armed forces and groups often by abduction, tortured into submission, to escape poverty, to defend their communities, out of a feeling of revenge or for other reasons. Organized crime and violent extremists groups use a child’s vulnerability for their own gain, and in doing so deny a child’s right to play, a stable childhood and education, as well as opening them up to abuse, violent behavior, slavery and often death.

Example 3 on the articles of the Declaration: Corruption and illicit financial flaws.

The Right to Social Security (Art. 22), the Right to Democracy (Art. 21), the Right to Education (Art. 26), the Right to Health (Art. 25), the Right to Safe, Sufficient and Affordable Water and Sanitation, Freedom from Hunger

When public money is stolen for private gain, it means fewer resources to build schools, hospitals, roads and water treatment facilities. When foreign aid is diverted into private bank accounts or infrastructure, projects and support come to a halt. Stopping illicit flows and mitigating the corrosive impact of corruption, through asset recovery, is vital to ensuring better access to social security and therefore a higher standard of living. Many countries still struggle with dictatorship, autocratic governance and kleptocratic rule, where public money is siphoned off for private use. Without confiscating these assets local communities are more likely to have their socio-economic development reduced, causing them to be more effected by crime and terrorism.

For further information on how to create your video message please contact unicri.publicinfo@un.org

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that drafted the UDHR in 1946-1948, 10 December 1958.